The premise of the game is simple. You’re the boss of an 8-bit, video-game inspired dungeon. You want to build the most dangerous rooms, with the shiniest loot, to lure and kill heroes. Reap the souls of 10 heroes to win, or suffer 5 damage from heroes to lose.

Every turn heroes are going to show up town. Each turn you’re going to add a card to your dungeon. Cards have 3 traits to them: damage dealt, treasure, and a special power. The treasure on the card is what’s going to lure a hero to your dungeon. The damage is what’s going to hurt said hero. The special power lets you do cool stuff, like build extra rooms, destroy rooms to earn special powers, etc…

If a hero loses all its health before reaching your boss, you gain their soul. If not, the hero does damage. Fast forward a bit, and eventually Epic Heroes enter the game. They’re harder to kill, but are worth 2 souls instead of one.

It’s a bit tricky, but you have spell cards to help you kill heroes, or beef up the heroes in your opponents’ dungeons. You can also upgrade some of your dungeon cards to advanced dungeon cards that are more powerful.

Boss monster is light, but a lot of fun. It can be played in as little as 15 minutes, and takes no time at all to learn. It’s easy to see the appeal, and easy to see how the game’s Kickstarter pulled in over $215,000. Well over the $12,000 goal it needed to be funded. The best part? The game is now available to purchase for $25, and it’s well worth that price.

A copy of Boss Monster was provided free for review by Brotherise Games.